I know its been quite a while since I last posted. This may continue for a bit longer. I haven’t quit sewing; I just have not been posting about it lately. I will try to check in from time to time with things I think are worth sharing with you all. I did have a few requests to post my creations for my family’s recent trip to Disney World. So here are the 5 days worth of kids clothes I made for the trip! Whew! The majority of the blank shirts were purchased at Target or Wal-Mart and I added the appliques with my embroidery machine. I also did not sew any of the shorts my son is wearing in the photos below. I ran out of time and he had PLENTY already! I did make all the girls bottoms. I am pretty impressed with myself because we decided on the trip just a little over a month before we left and I only had 12 kid-free school days to plan the outfits and make them.

The kids were just as excited about the plane ride as they were about
going to Disney World!

On day 1, we arrived at our hotel around noon and headed to the Magic Kingdom. The kids wore their Frozen outfits. The girls chose Elsa appliques and Calder chose Olaf. The pants were made using Create Kids Couture’s new Raelyn’s Triple Ruffle Bow Shorts pattern. The Elsa applique design is from CuteByKira and the Olaf design is from AppliqueCandy. I am so in love with using glitter sheets! Of course, we had to stop for a Dole Whip! Yum!
On day 2, we headed to Epcot and the kids wore their Mickey and Minnie shirts. The Mouse head appliques are from Blastostitch. The monogram is from Hang to Dry. I accidentally put Calder’s Mickey too low so I added the “Meeska Mooska” above it using a Blastostitch Disney font. The shorts are Whimsy Couture Ruffle Shorts pattern. They are really easy to make and the pattern comes with optional belt loops and a pocket. I will try adding those next time. Epcot is my favorite park and I think the kids really had a blast too!
On day 3, we went to Hollywood Studios. They wore shirts with their first initial on them. The skirts have a surprise.They are actually skorts! I used the easy to sew 5 Berries Isabella skort pattern. The shirts’ alpha applique is also from Hang to Dry. We also got to meet Jake. It was one of Calder’s favorite moments!
Day 4 was my girls’ 5th Birthday! We decided to head back to the Magic Kingdom to celebrate. The shorts are from The Mean Princess whose Etsy shop is currently closed but you can send them a request to notify you if she decides to reopen it. The applique is from DaisySproutsDesigns. Naomi was so excited to have a shirt with a unicorn drawn carriage on it. Calder’s shirt was inspired by a super cute Prince Charming costume I saw on Etsy. The shop has been removed but she does have a Facebook page here. Hopefully she will reopen it because her shirts are wonderful! The girl’s had a great birthday! A little rain didn’t stop the fun. It also made for a beautiful backdrop for the castle.
Day 5 was spent at the Animal Kingdom. It was VERY wet. I didn’t get a lot of good photos of the kids in their outfits.We spent most of the day sprinting from shelter to shelter and we all were soaked! Calder’s Bucky applique is from Glizystiches. He loves this shirt and requested to wear it again to school today! The girls wore tops with deer appliques from DBembroideryDesigns. Their shorts are from Little Kiwis Closet. I just love the little bow details on the sides! We had an awesome time and are looking forward to our next trip back in a few years.At least I have a little more time to plan their outfits. 😉

Just checking in to say “Hello” and to wish Mama Can Sew a Happy Anniversary!

My blog’s one year anniversary snuck by me a few weeks ago. I can’t believe it has been that long. It is amazing how much you can learn in a year! I feel like I have really improved but also have so much more to learn.

I get asked a lot about my future plans. I am not exactly sure what they are for my blog or my sewing at the moment. I started the blog to keep me accountable for my projects. It was intended to push me to follow through and finish them. It has also unexpectedly pushed me to put more effort in photographing my children. In the process, I have captured a lot of cute photos of my kids that I wouldn’t otherwise have! It has been a challenge to keep up with it, but all your encouraging comments have inspired me to keep sewing and blogging about my projects. Thank you all for your kind words!

I have also had a lot of questions about my future plans for sewing. I get a lot of inquiries about commissions and/or a possible future Etsy store. I occasionally do a commission. I like to do things that I am comfortable with. I want to keep sewing stress free at the moment. I have toyed with the idea of an Etsy store, but whenever I get serious about it, I realize I am not quite ready. I really appreciate every one of your inquiries however. Every time I am asked this, I am honored that you think so much of my sewing ability, and I do hope one day to turn my love of sewing into a business. Again, thank you!

So this entry won’t be completely without photos, here is a commission I did do a few months back.

I love the Triple Ruffle Pants pattern from FooFoo Threads. You may remember them from my past blog entries here and here. So when I had a request from another mom in my local multiples group to make her twins a pair, I couldn’t resist. I hope those sweeties enjoy them!

I started the gift making frenzy with a few purses. I used Sis Boom’s Rosetta Ruffle Bag PDF Pattern. It was surprisingly easy since I was able to use my serger to ruffle. Making ruffles by machine is so much faster than gathering by hand!

They even have interior pockets and a magnetic snap.

I then tackled a few aprons. The Sis Boom Betsey Reversible Apron PDF Pattern actually comes with the purse pattern I used above! It is also a fun, easy pattern once you get passed making all that bias tape. Ugh!

I needed to figure out a guy gift too. I finally settled on a wallet. I used this free tutorial from Modest Maven. I made a few mistakes, but I think it turned out alright. Let’s just say it has character.

It has plenty of pockets.

I picked myself out a Christmas gift this year too.

It came a few weeks early, so I was able to use it to make gifts as well.

The other set of dishtowels was a little more involved. I took a few drawings my kids made, scanned them, and then used a computer program that takes the images and turns them into embroidery designs. This process could probably be a blog entry in itself but I forgot to take photos! Luckily my stepfather let me borrow the image of them he posted on Facebook. Thanks Jim!

I had a few other gifts in mind but I ran out of time to make them. I guess they can wait until next year!

I haven’t been very good about updating my blog recently. I apologize to anyone missing my posts! Most of my sewing these past months has been for Christmas presents and I can’t share them yet. I don’t want to ruin the surprises for my family! I promise I will share them all after Christmas.

I can finally share the girls Christmas dresses however! I actually finished them a few months ago, but I wanted to wait until it was closer to Christmas to post them. Here you go….

I used Create Kids Couture’s Violettes dress pattern. Those swirls were a LOT of work but they just screamed “peppermint” at me and I decided to use the pattern for their holiday dresses.

The bodice seemed a bit empty, so I decided to add an applique. I wanted it to mimic the swirls of the skirt, so I created a miniature version of them to use as the fabric. The letters are Hang to Dry’s Every Day Applique Alpha.

The girls’ favorite part of the dresses is that they are great for twirling. So great, I think I am going to have to whip up some bloomers before Christmas! Oops!

It has been a few months since I had the opportunity to participate in a sew-along. It seemed every time one came up I was out of town, so I was excited when the chance to participate in one using one of Create Kids Couture’ new fall releases, Trista’s Knit pixie T-shirt.

I fell in love with the pattern the moment I saw it. The hood is so quirky and fun, I knew I had to have the pattern for my girls. I love how it twists down into a point!

Plus it is pretty cute from the front too.

There are several options with the pattern. You can make it without the hood or add short sleeves or go sleeveless. They also suggest a few different ways to finish the seams and edges. I tried my first lettuce edge! In fact, I can only think of a couple of other times I have ever attempted to sew with knits, so the whole outfit was a bit outside of my normal comfort zone. Luckily, CKC’s patterns are always easy to follow and I had nothing to fear. In fact, I never used my sewing machine at all! I made both tops using only my serger (but you can do it with a sewing machine too if you don’t have one)!

Although these shirts would be adorable just paired with jeans, I had some leftover fabric that was just begging to be made into matching skirts. I had recently discovered the Cascading Ruffle Skirt tutorial by Lil Blue Boo and I had to try it. It was very simple to construct. The hardest part was cutting out all those kidney bean shaped pieces of fabric! I think they turned out pretty sweet in the end!

It makes me a bit sad and a whole lot of relieved to say I am not making Halloween costumes for my kids this year. Naomi and Calder want to wear costumes we already own and Maya talked us into a store-bought kitty costume. I really wanted to make something for Halloween though, so I picked up a cute Halloween fat quarter bundle from Joanns with no plans in particular for it. After digging through the fall clothes, I found a pair of purple Halloween shirts I bought on clearance last year and decided to make skirts to go with them.

I used the 5 Berries Isabella skort for inspiration. I just finished two Isabellas a few weeks back (I will post them another day), so I was pretty familiar with their construction. To make the skirts, I used stripwork in an attempt to get enough continuous fabric for the main body. I was able to sew three strips together to get enough length for the ruffle. After laying it all out, I realized I didn’t have quite enough fabric still, so I added a purple batik from another bundle I had. I think it helped pull it together with the purple shirt better anyway!

We finally had a cool day today, so the girls got to wear them to school. I just hope we have a few more fall-like days before Halloween, so they get worn more than once!